No shortage of bad news with the Edmonton Oilers, but there’s also one bit of very good news, that the Oilers power play isranked second …

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Eberle and RNH, power play kings

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle announcing themselves, just as many brilliant young attackers do.

No shortage of bad news with the Edmonton Oilers, but there’s also one bit of very good news, that the Oilers power play isranked second overall in the National Hockey League, behind only the high-powered Vanouver man advantage.

Some of the credit for this goes to Oilers coach Tom Renney. Generally,Renney has got the players who are producing the most scoring chances out there for the most amount of time.

In the above chart, you will see that when it comes to putting up scoring chances and contributing to power play goals, all of these players are also near the top of the Oilers list.

As Scotty Bowman once said, the job of the coach is to get the right players on the ice, and Renney is doing that with his power play unit.

Of course, most of the credit must go to the emergence of two power play specialists, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. They dominate the game with their passing and shooting. RNH, especially, is a master of the man advantage, from his spot on the right halfwall.

Last season, the Oilers power play was led by Kurtis Foster, who made 15 contributions to power play goals. Already this year, RNH, with 22, Shawn Horcoff, 16, Eberle, 16, and Taylor Hall, 15, have tied or moved ahead of Foster. Corey Potter would likely be ahead of Foster as well if he hadn’t been injured.

RNH is creating chances at about the same rate as Linus Omark did last season, but he’s having far more success and luck at cashing in those chances than Omark did.

But those power plays were all mediocre-to-terrible. This one is outstanding so far, and that’s reflected in the kind of scoring production we’re seeing: RNH, 9.85 conts per 60; Potter and Hall, 9.39 conts per 60; Horcoff, 8.13 conts per 60; Eberle, 7.44 conts per 60; Tom Gilbert, 6.59 conts per 60.

In a season where much is starting to go wrong, this is sign of real hope. Offensive stars announce themselves at a young age in the NHL. They don’t often wait around until they’re 23 or 24 to start scoring. They do it when they first enter the league.

This is what we’re seeing with RNH, Eberle and Hall. Throw in a Horcoff in the net-crashing Holmstrom role and Potter, who passes and shoots both effectively and quickly, and the Oilers have a unit that will continue to threaten, both this year and in coming years.

If the first unit does slow down a touch this year, I’d expect the second unit will pick up some of the slack. Ryan Smyth and Ales Hemsky are contributing to chances at a good rate, but not yet being rewarded with many power play goals. That could easily change with some better bounces. Throw in Sam Gagner, Tom Gilbert and Eric Belanger, Jeff Petry or perhaps Ryan Jones and that second unit should start producing more.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/oilers-power-play-second-best-in-nhl-some-welcome-good-news/feed/01cultofhockey_blog_bannerdavidstaplesedmontonEberle and RNH, power play kings201112oilers.pp.35gamesHemsky is doing himself no favourshttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/hemsky-is-doing-himself-no-favours/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/hemsky-is-doing-himself-no-favours/#commentsThu, 29 Dec 2011 06:04:33 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=101683Let’s get one thing straight before we move along: Ales Hemsky is a heckuva player when the spirit moves him, which it does on a lot of nights when he’s in one piece and he’s taking abuse to make a …]]>Let’s get one thing straight before we move along: Ales Hemsky is a heckuva player when the spirit moves him, which it does on a lot of nights when he’s in one piece and he’s taking abuse to make a play with people like Robyn Regehr in his face. He can bring people out of their seats with his all-world skills. I love watching him, when he’s on.

But Hemsky is doing himself no favours when he doesn’t like the line of questioning at a media gathering in Leduc on Wednesday and walks off in a crowded dressing room saying “I’m done with this” when asked about his shoulders. Frankly, it was petulant, not something an assistant captain should be doing. Again, I like Hemsky the player. But this was hardly an inquisition he was facing. There were a lot more room-service softballs than high hard ones, apart from the question I asked about the perception he’s injury prone.

Maybe he just doesn’t like me; I asked questions about his shoulders that seemed to tick him off. Or maybe he didn’t like a story last week where I wondered about his conviction to playing

I can live with not being liked.

But contrast that with teammate Ryan Whitney the day before when he stood against a wall in an hallway at the same Leduc Recreation Centre on Tuesday and decried how he doesn’t want to be “an average player.” He said it was killing him that he can’t do what he’s paid to do because his right ankle isn’t strong enough. Whitney feels he’s letting a lot of people down: fans, his teammates, the people signing his cheques twice a month. Absolute right thing to say.

Hemsky should be saying the same sort of thing. It would have been smarter from him to say “you know, I’m not playing well guys. No excuses. My shoulders are perfectly fine now. I’ve got to start carrying the ball here and taking some pressure off the kids.”

Fans tend to relate to a player who admits his faults. No defensive posture.

Again, he said his shoulders were fine now. But, if they are, where are the points?

He absolutely has to be a leader at a time when the Oilers are teetering on being a playoff possibility or falling out.

Hemsky can’t be a follower on this Oilers’ team with the kids Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall. He has to step up and say “follow me boys.” Doesn’t he? Or am I wrong here?

What was evident in the interview with Hemsky was this: he feels whatever happens regarding a trade or whether the Oilers want to resign him is out of his hands. Wrong. If he had 40 points now, the Oilers would be at his agent’s doorstep with a new contract offer. He has 11. The Oilers definitely know they need some veteran guiding hands for their kids. They would love it if Hemsky was one of those guys. So would I. But, his wishy-washy whatever happens, happens quote wasn’t the right thing to say. He should be saying “I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m going to show people why they need me.”

Again, I love Hemsky the player. I’ve watched him for about 10 years. He can bring people out of their seats. But, the odds are 75-25, he’s traded at the deadline with the way things are going now, and not just because he’s an unrestricted free-agent on July 1 and you have to get something for those players who can walk away.

Over the years, in the pages of The Edmonton Journal, I’ve chronicled her birth, her first day of kindergarten, her first day of junior high. Now that she’s in high …

]]>This Thursday, Dec. 29th, marks our daughter’s 15th birthday.

Over the years, in the pages of The Edmonton Journal, I’ve chronicled her birth, her first day of kindergarten, her first day of junior high. Now that she’s in high school, however, I’ve been a little more discreet about making her fodder for my column. (The last time she “appeared” in one of my pieces, she complained that I’d misquoted her. “Now I know just how Ed Stelmach and Ron Liepert feel,” she said. Ouch.)

But this column, which I wrote the year she turned ten, isn’t really about her. It’s about coming of age as an unexpected mother. And if you’ll allow me one last December re-tread, I repurpose it here, in honour of all those other young mothers out there, struggling to figure out how to balance all the roles and responsibilities our era has thrust upon us.

I will just say this to my daughter. Thanks, C, for inspiring me every step of the way. Thanks for keeping me honest. For keeping me sane. And for keeping me focused on the things that really matter most.

Ten years ago today, I brought my new-born daughter home from the hospital.

I was never more exhilarated. More exhausted. Or more terrified.

Having a baby had never been part of my long-term game plan. I was an ambitious workaholic control freak, a careerist to the core.

Motherhood? I didn’t have a clue.

As a kid, I was never the maternal type. Other little girls nursed baby dolls and played house and dressed up as brides. My imaginary games involved wild adventures with enchantresses and dragons and queens.

Other girls I knew loved to babysit. But as a teen, I ducked all sitting requests from relatives and neighbours. Children scared me. They were unaccountable. Unpredictable. They were all about chaos, and I was all about control.

Growing up in Edmonton in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I saw two different kinds of women: married women who stayed home, raised children and cleaned house; and single women who had careers. Carol Brady versus Mary Tyler Moore, as it were.

The idea that a woman could be both a married mother and a successful professional never really crossed my mind because it never entered my experience. I didn’t know what career I’d settle on — anthropologist, lawyer, marine biologist, politician. I just knew that in the script of life, I wanted to be a Mary, not a Carol.

I'm a Mary, not a Carol

Flash forward to my third date with the man who would eventually become my husband. We’re still sounding each other out. He beams at me across the table. Why does he find me so attractive? Because, he tells me, he senses that I’ll make a great mother.

I feel slightly sick. I am 21. This is our THIRD date. It is not sexy to tell a woman of 21 that you find her hot because she looks like a good mommy.

Sorry, I tell him. I’m never going to have children. I’m going to have an important career. He has to know that kids will never be part of my world.

He smiles patiently and insists on marrying me anyway.

We move to Toronto. I take a high-pressure network job as a producer with the CBC. I work with all kinds of smart, talented, driven women. They are brilliant. They are successful. They are childless. They are totally dedicated to their careers. They have framed pictures of their cats on their desks.

And one day, I turn 30, and realize I do not want to be a woman with a picture of my cat on my desk. Next thing you know, I’m back home, working as a reporter at the Edmonton Journal.

My Toronto colleagues think I’m crazy. How can I leave a gig as a producer on a network program at the centre of the universe to write for a regional daily? I don’t bother explaining that I’ve chosen the Edmonton Journal because it has a reputation as a more “family friendly” newsroom – with longer maternity leaves and an on-site daycare.

But a year later, as I step into my warm little house, my day-old girl in my arms, I realize I don’t have a script for this part. I am desperately in love with this baby. I just have no idea how to be a mother. I have never rehearsed this role, not even mentally.

One night, when my daughter is about a week old, I catch sight of my haggard face in a mirror. I do not recognize myself. Who is this woman, this mother, standing in my house, looking back from my reflection? Who is this stranger? How did she take over my life? Surely, I say to myself, this isn’t real. Surely, it’s a dream, and I’ll wake up and be myself again, with my old life back.

On Friday, my daughter turned 10. She’s grown a lot. And so have I. I’m still working without a script, still exhilarated — and still more than a little terrified. Some days I feel motherhood has made me a stronger and kinder human being, that it’s made me more patient, more flexible, more imaginative, more empathetic. Other days I feel more confused and incompetent than ever. On those days, I know I’m still an impostor, that I’m merely pretending to be a mother, faking my way along until I finally wake up from this strangely vivid dream.

Yet an unscripted life can be a blessing, too. Balancing a career and a family is a constant act of improvisation, one that requires passion and creativity.

I’ve learned you can’t “have it all.” But if you’re willing to make it up as you go along, you can have quite a lot. Including a few wild adventures with enchantresses, dragons and queens.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/paulas-advent-calendar-addendum-adventures-in-motherhood/feed/0paulaticsThe Brady BunchMary Tyler Moore as Mary RichardsOilers call up Teubert to bad news bluelinehttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/oilers-call-up-teubert-to-bad-news-blueline/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/oilers-call-up-teubert-to-bad-news-blueline/#commentsWed, 28 Dec 2011 21:53:03 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=101615Oilers have four defencemen who have played well this year. After that, it’s all very, very, very bad news.

Teubert is one of a group of defencemen including Ryan Whitney, Cam Barker, Andy Sutton, Taylor Chorney, Theo Peckham and Alex Plante who have struggled badly on the Oilers blueline this year.

In fact, the team is split into four distinct groups on the blueline.

1. Playing well against tough competition: Tom Gilbert, Ladislav Smid.

Gilbert has helped the Oilers create 94 scoring chances, while making mistakes on just 76. That is outstanding at even strength, where any d-man with a one-to-one ratio of chances for to changes against is doing his job. Smid is right around that plus-minus number on chances, also playing tough competition. Gilbert has become more consistent this year, while Smid is enjoying better health (no knocks on the head from Raffi Torres) and is demonstrating better decision-making and more confidence in his play.

2. Playing OK against average competition: Jeff Petry, Corey Potter.

The Oilers aren’t stock with top NHL d-men, but the cupboard isn’t exactly bare. Ryan Whitney was a top d-man last year, while Jeff Petry and Corey Potter have had their moments this year. Both have generally held their own, staying close to the break even line on scoring chances plus/minus.

Both usually make good decisions with the puck and both have a good feel for the game. We can expect both to improve, eliminating the odd reckless decision they still tend to make, but that improvement will be slow, just as it was with Gilbert and Smid.

3. Playing poorly against average competition: Ryan Whitney.

Whitney suggested to the media that with his injury, he is only capable of playing average hockey this year. If only that were so. In fact, he’s leaking chances and goal against. Last year, he was in positive territory in scoring chances plus/minus. This year, he is -31 in limited playing time. That is an atrocious plus/minus number for a d-man.

As a group, these d-men have contributed to 94 scoring chances at even strength, while making mistakes on 192. They have done this against weak competition.

It’s evident that the greater the number of this group in any single game, the worse the Oilers are going to play. Of the group, they’re all playing as expected, I should say, save for Peckham, who has been a mild disappointment, not playing as well as he did last season.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/oilers-call-up-teubert-to-bad-news-blueline/feed/01cultofhockey_blog_bannerdavidstaplesedmontonRyan Whitney, Edmonton Oilers201112_Oilers_es_dmen_35gamesDear Facebook, From The People Who Are Just Not That Into Digital Scrapbookinghttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/dear-facebook-from-the-people-who-are-just-not-that-into-digital-scrapbooking/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/dear-facebook-from-the-people-who-are-just-not-that-into-digital-scrapbooking/#commentsWed, 28 Dec 2011 21:46:00 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=101610Dear Facebook,

This is not a break-up letter. I enjoy your product very much. You’ve helped get me my current job, you’re a significant tool for any digital media conglomerate, and you have shown me many wonderful videos of kittens …

]]>Dear Facebook,

This is not a break-up letter. I enjoy your product very much. You’ve helped get me my current job, you’re a significant tool for any digital media conglomerate, and you have shown me many wonderful videos of kittens riding around on Roombas. The love and goodwill you have given me is too strong to simply quit outright over one thing.

But I am very concerned. I’ve never written you a letter before. I’ve never needed to; for all the changes you’ve made over the past several years, they’ve been at their hearts, cosmetic. The interface is shifted around or the design is radically changed or the location of everything has been moved across the board, or, most recently, for some reason you nested a second version of your site in the upper right corner of your actual site.

I didn’t like most of these changes, but I abided by them, because they weren’t changing what Facebook was to me, and they simply meant I had to reteach myself how to use a tool. So while they’ve irritated me (and, judging by the ill-will reserves you’ve built up, they’ve irritated the entire Internet), you’ve always won me back by being you.

I’m writing this letter because this Timeline shift is a fundamental example, arguably the first, that you’re no longer the site I once fell for. And I’m not sure if we can ever go back to that place.

I first became concerned earlier this fall when I read a story in the Journal that introduced me to your new Timeline concept.

“Facebook unveiled last week services that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online. The social networking service showed off a dramatic redesign of users’ profiles, a timeline that charts in chronological order all the information users have shared in the past. Facebook also said that third-party applications would – with users’ consent – automatically share every action users take, such as the songs they listen to or the videos they watch.”

While the rest of the article focuses on privacy – which I’ve already argued in the past is primarily the responsibility of the user, and I continue to maintain that point – the line that had me worried for our future together came right at the beginning:

“…services that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online…”

This is the problem, Facebook. Up until now, you’ve been focused pretty solidly on breadth-of-content expansions. Now, you’re outright stating that depth-of-content is your new goal. And this makes me worried for the future.

Depth-of-content is an issue that is particular for each individual pairing, and the fact remains that it’s already possible, on Facebook alone, to go extraordinarily in-depth. Most of your other users who want to share their dental records, ultrasounds, and childhood sketches of Batman can already do that – and do. But for anyone who has hit their maximum depth, a redesign where the goal is focused on expanding to new levels of sharing is of no use whatsoever. And considering how long your site has been around and at the zenith of social media culture, the majority of us have already discovered our depth.

Increasing breadth-of-content – that is, increasing the amount and spread of personal content that is put out into the ether – is a lot simpler, namely because it happens naturally every day. Another status, another posted picture, another check-in or Tweet or video comment, even if it’s no further into personality tract than it was yesterday, increases breadth of content and a person’s online footprint.

But that same person’s depth of content is decided extraordinarily early on social networking sites. The functionality and services of the site’s features will affect their depth of content about as much as a library’s cataloguing system is going to affect their reading comprehension SAT score. Are there tangents that can be drawn? Absolutely. Is it primarily controlled by factors entirely outside the scope of the network? Absolutely. The option to “automatically share every action users take” is not appealing to people who have zero desire to share every action they’re taking.

So this Timeline change, in addition to being cluttered, unattractive, clumsy, and unneccessary, is problematic because it appears to represent that your company is threatening to move in directions I am not comfortable moving in. All the other changes, I could take. The web gods know I will always eventually forgive the graphical typhoons you call redesigns, and eventually come to care for them with the same affection you feel for a mangled puppy that killed your previous dog, but is in need of a home.

But Timeline may just be the tip of a vast iceberg that threatens to sink our relationship with all hands on deck. I don’t want a service that makes it easier for people to delve into my past and my previously-on-this-season-of-my-life clips; I want people to know what’s going on in the Now. I use Facebook almost exclusively to discover what people are doing and who they are, not what they did and who they once were. And while I’ve Facebook-stalked strangers through ages of photos before, the focus is not on where they were on August 18th, 2008, but what kind of person they are currently are. (Yes Facebook. I use you to meet other people. I thought this was what you wanted when you changed us to “in an open relationship.”)

The past isn’t worthless, far from it, but it’s much less powerful or helpful to me than the present, which is where I and the vast majority of humanity live. Creating an “interactive digital scrapbook [to] tell the stories of [my] life” is not why I signed up for you in the first place. Your product indicates that you are not catering to my needs any more.

And what really worries me is, judging by your history, every modification you’ve ever made for personal profiles eventually gets filtered over to company pages and groups. If the Edmonton Journal Facebook Page is remade with an adapted version of Timeline, it will be almost completely useless, because the inability to instantly figure out what is happening in the Now will mean that the entire point of newsmedia organizations using your service will be eliminated.

That last one hasn’t happened yet, but don’t you see? You’ve made me afraid that it might, and that’s not a place I want to be, not when there are other social media suitors knocking on my door. None of them are as popular as you, and even though I’ve been seeing Twitter for a long time (not to mention flirting shamelessly with this new Google+ fellow), I still have a special place in my cold black Internet heart for you.

Please, let’s not fight, Facebook. I don’t want Timeline, and will bitterly swallow it if I have to, though I would be much happier if you made it an optional add-on application rather than a mandatory dress code. But please, don’t let this be the harbinger of things to come that it is threatening to be.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/dear-facebook-from-the-people-who-are-just-not-that-into-digital-scrapbooking/feed/1davewjohnstonGord Miller and the man who encouraged him to go into broadcasting … who is he?http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/gord-miller-and-the-man-who-encouraged-him-to-go-into-broadcasting-who-is-he/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/gord-miller-and-the-man-who-encouraged-him-to-go-into-broadcasting-who-is-he/#commentsWed, 28 Dec 2011 21:40:05 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=101611He went to university with Gord Miller’s father and was an alderman for the City of Edmonton in the early 1970’s.

The City was debating a curfew bylaw and knew the young Miller would be the right age to speak …

]]>He went to university with Gord Miller’s father and was an alderman for the City of Edmonton in the early 1970’s.

The City was debating a curfew bylaw and knew the young Miller would be the right age to speak on the issue.

“I got to the debate and the guy that was supposed to be on stage got stage frieght so I went up and spoke,” says Miller.

He and Miller formed a friendship.

“He convinced me to go into broadcasting,” says Miller.

“When I finished high school he hired me as his executive assistant a year and asked what I wanted to do with my life,” says Miller.

Miller says he was working for CBC and having fun. But Miller didn’t think he could do it for a living.

“He said ‘Why not?'” Miller says.

Shortly after NAIT had an open house and he invited Miller.

There was a Radio and Television Arts demonstration where people could get in front of a television camera and pretend they were broadcasting.

“The head of the program happened to be there and saw me — and said I should sign up as soon as I could.”

Miller did. He started NAIT but was hired by CBC Television in Edmonton before he completed the course.

Miller started in 1984 and began a string of six-week contract positions before he was finally hired full-time.

“He taught me so many things,” Miller says.

“The biggest thing he taught me was to save money. And everytime I got paid he made a point of coming over and asking me if I saved money.

“Even when I went over to his house for dinner when I got my TSN job he would ask me if I was still saving.”

And, he is …. Percy Wickman.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/gord-miller-and-the-man-who-encouraged-him-to-go-into-broadcasting-who-is-he/feed/0camtaitWorld Juniors live blogs – linkhttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/world-juniors-live-blogs-link/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2011/12/28/world-juniors-live-blogs-link/#commentsWed, 28 Dec 2011 20:38:23 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=101606A heads-up to readers that the Edmonton Journal & Calgary Herald are hosting live blogs for games at the World Junior Hockey Championships in a manner similar to our Oilers live blogs here at Cult of Hockey. Please drop in …]]>A heads-up to readers that the Edmonton Journal & Calgary Herald are hosting live blogs for games at the World Junior Hockey Championships in a manner similar to our Oilers live blogs here at Cult of Hockey. Please drop in during any game and contribute to the commentary, which can be found here: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/world-junior-hockey/Live+Blog/5911793/story.html